MARYLAND. 



473 



Harris for Governor of Maryland, S. Teackle Wallis 

 as Attorney-General, and Colonel Edward Wilkins 

 as Controller, and we heartily recommend them to 

 our voters as men eminently suitable for their re- 

 spective positions, being both honest and capable. 



Mr. Harris, the nominee for Governor, was 

 a Whig member of Congress at the breaking 

 out of the civil war, and was a Union man. 

 Mr. Wallis had been a Whig in former years, 

 but supported Breckinridge in 1860, and was 

 arrested while a Senator, during the war, and 

 imprisoned in Fortress Monroe and Fort War- 

 ren for fourteen months. Since then he had 

 acted with the Democratic party until this cam- 

 paign. Mr. Wilkins had been a leader of the 

 Republican party for some years. 



The canvass which followed these nomina- 

 tions was quite excited, owing to the fact that 

 religious prejudices were involved to some ex- 

 tent, and the "reform" movement was gener- 

 ally regarded as anti-Catholic in its purposes. 

 The election was held on the 2d of November. 

 The total vote cast for Governor, according to 

 the official returns, was 157,991, of which Car- 

 roll received 85,447, and Harris 72,544, making 

 the majority of the former 12,903. Woolford 

 for Controller had a majority of 14,250 out of 

 a total vote of 158,266, and Gwinn for Attor- 

 ney-General a majority of 13,682 out of a total 

 of 159,154. One-half of the Senate and the 

 whole of the House of Representatives were 

 chosen at the same election. The Legislature, 

 as constituted at the session of 1876, consisted 

 of 19 Democrats and 7 opposition in the Senate, 

 and 58 Democrats and 26 opposition in the 

 House, making the Democratic majority 12 in 

 the Senate, 32 in the House, and 44 on a joint 

 ballot. 



On the 16th of November, or as soon as the 

 full returns of the vote cast at the election were 

 made known, Mr. S. Teackle Wallis wrote a 

 letter to Governor Groome, giving notice that 

 he should contest the election of Mr. Gwinn for 

 Attorney- General, on the ground that the vote 

 of the city of Baltimore was null and void on 

 account of frauds and intimidation, and that he 

 had received a majority of the votes outside of 

 the city. The Governor replied on the 19th of 

 November, expressing doubt as to his authority 

 to hear and decide such a contest. He con- 

 sented to receive the statements and arguments 

 of Mr. Wallis and Mr. Gwinn, or of counsel in 

 their behalf, on the question of his powers and 

 duties in the premises. The hearing was given 

 on the 24th of November. Mr. Wallis argued 

 that, as the constitution made it the duty of the 

 Governor to receive the returns from the clerks 

 of the county courts and " decide on the elec- 

 tion and qualification of the person returned," 

 there could be no doubt as to his authority to 

 pronounce on the validity of the vote in Balti- 

 more, and declare which candidate was entitled 

 to the office. With regard to the method of 

 conducting the contest, he claimed that, as no 

 specific provisions were laid down, it was for 

 the Governor to decide this matter for himself. 



The facts on which the contestant based his 

 claim, and which he declared that he could 

 prove, were stated as follows : 



I propose and expect to show that a general sys- 

 tem and scheme of intimidation and violence was 

 begun in the city upon the 1st of November, and 

 continued on through that day and night and during 

 the day of election ; that by means of such intimida- 

 tion and violence large numbers of duly-qualified 

 voters were prevented from seeking access to the 

 polls, and other large numbers were driven there- 

 from, throughout the city, or prevented from voting 

 by personal violence. 1 propose and expect to show 

 that such violence and intimidation were general ; 

 that they were practised exclusively by those who 

 supported the regular Democratic ticket against those 

 who desired to vote the Reform ticket; that they 

 were generally connived at, and in many cases en- 

 couraged, by the police force of the city, whose in- 

 terference, so far as it occurred, was commonly on 

 the side of lawlessness, and against the law. I pro- 

 pose and expect to show that by reason of such in- 

 timidation and violence, and the grossest dereliction 

 of duty on the part of the Police Board, its officers 

 and men, the elective franchise was trampled under 

 foot, and the election in the city was not free, but 

 was an election only in name. I propose and expect 

 further to show that the grossest and most wholesale 

 frauds were at the same time practised, for the most 

 part with the participation and connivance, and in 

 large part by the hands of the Democratic judges of 

 election, so that, even if violence and intimidation 

 had not occurred, as I have alleged, the vote which 

 was taken throughout the city was so tainted with 

 fraud that the truth could not be deduced from the 

 returns. I propose and expect to show that large 

 numbers of illegal votes were fraudulently given 

 and accepted, and large numbers of legal votes were 

 fraudulently refused, by said judges at almost all the 

 voting precincts of the city ; that in very many of 

 said precincts the ballot-boxes were fraudulently 

 stuffed, -with the connivance of the Democratic 

 judges, and large numbers of tickets were counted 

 in excess of the number of votes actually polled. I 

 further propose and expect to prove that not only 

 was the vote thus fraudulently tampered with by the 

 said judges in the polling and the count, but the re- 

 turns themselves were fraudulently made and altered 

 so that they do not represent even the truth of what 

 the ballot-boxes were fraudulently made to show. 



Mr. Gwinn in his statement took the ground 

 that the Governor's duty was merely to declare 

 the result of the election as it appeared from 

 the returns made to him, and that he had no 

 judicial power to revise the decisions of the 

 judges of election. He maintained that there 

 could be no contest of an election until the re- 

 sult had been declared, and that it was for the 

 Legislature to make provision for all contested 

 elections unless specifically provided for in the 

 constitution. He denied the authority of the 

 Governor to hear testimony on the subject of 

 counting the vote of the city of Baltimore. 

 The case was further argued by counsel on both 

 sides. Governor Groome made his decision on 

 the 6th of December. He decided that Mr. 

 Gwinn had been elected Attorney- General ac- 

 cording to the returns, and also that he was 

 fully qualified for, and eligible to, the office. 

 Yet as a grave constitutional question was in- 

 volved whether he could go back of the re- 

 turns he would leave that question to the 

 courts, and would refuse to issue a commission 



